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PULPIT AFD ROSTRUM. 



ANDREW J. GRAHAM and CHARLES B. COLLAR, 
REPORTERS AND EDITORS. 



PROVIDENCE IN WAR; 

A THANKSCIVINC DISCOURSE 



Rev. S. D. BURCHARD, D. D., 



SKUVERED AT THt; 



THIRTEENTH STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK, 
NOVEMBER 28th, 18G1. 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY E. D BARKER, 

13 6 G U A N i.) ST K E 1 : T . 

December 15th, 1:861. 



THE PULPIT AND ROSTRUM, 

AN ELEGANT PAMPHLET SERIAL. 

SERMONS, LECTURES, ORATIONS, Etc. 

MBREW J. GRAHAM and CHARLES B. COLLAR, Reporters. 
Twelve Numbers, $1.00, in advance; Single Number, 10 cents. 

The special object in tho publication of this Serial is, to preserve in couvcuieut form the bi-^l 
thoughts of our most gifted men,.jwst as they come from their lips ; thus retaining their freshness :iud 
pereonality. Great favor has already been shown the work, and its continuance is certain. TUe 
Buccessive numbers will be issued as often as Discourses worthy a i)laco in the Serial can be found ; 
»ut <>f the many reported, we hope to elect twelve each year. 



MUMBERS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 

No. 1.— CHRISTIAN RECREATION AND UNCHRISTIAN AMUSEMENT, 
Sermon by Rev. T L. Cutler. 

No. 2.— MENTAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN, Addresses by Rer. H. W. Beecher 
and Hon. Jas. T. Brady. 

No. 3.— GRANDEURS OF ASTRONOMY, Discourse by Prof. O. M. Mitchell. 

No. 4.— PROGRESS AND DEMANDS OF CHRISTIANITY, Sermon by Rev. Wm. 

H. MiLBURN. 

No. 5.— JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION, Sermon by Rev. A. Kingman Non. 

No. 6.— TRIBUTE TO HUMBOLDT, Addresses by Hon. Geo. B.vNCROrr. Rev. Dr. 
Thompson, Prol's. Agassiz, Libber, Bache and Guyot. 

No. 7.— COMING TO CHRIST, Sermon by Rev. Henry M. Scudder, 1). D., M. D. 

No. 8.— DANIEL WEBSTER, Oration by Hon. Edward EvERErr, at the luaugiir- 
ation of the statue of Webster, at Boston, Sept. 17th, 1859. 

No. 9.— A CHEERFUL TEMPER, a Thanksgiving Discourse, by Rev. W.m. 
Adams, D. D. 

No. 10.— DEATH OF WASHINGTON IRVING, Address by Hon. Edward 
Everett and Sermon by Rev. Jno. A. Todd. 

No. 11.— GEORGE WASHINGTON, Oration by Hon. Tiios. ^-. Bocock, at the 
Inauguration of the statue of Washington, in the city uf \Vusliiiiyton, February 
22d, 1860. 

No. 12.~TRAYEL, ITS PLEASURES, ADVANT^AGES AND REQUIREMEN'J'S, 
Lecture by J. H. Siddons. 

No. 13.— ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE, Addresses by Rev. Henry Ward Beecuei! . 
Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D., Rev. Jos. P. Thompson, D. D., and Prof. O. -M. 
Mitchell. Delivered in New York, Feb. 17th, 1860. 

No. 14.— SUCCESS OF OUR REPUBLIC, Oration by Hon. Edward Evehrti, in 
Boston, July 4th, 1860 

Nos. ■'^- *' 1ft— /TW^rr. i,i nn.^ '^0 rpiitw 1 WEBSTER'S SPEECH, in the Unite.! 
States J 
Carolina in 18G3. 

Nos. 17 & 18.- (Two in one, 20 cents.) WEBSTER'S REPLY 'J'O HAYNE 

No. 19.— LAFAYEITE, Oration by Hon. Charles Sumner, delivered in .xcv.' 
York and Philadelphia, Dec, i860 

No. 20.— THE CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, a paper contributed 
o the London Times, by J. Lothrop Motley. 

Nos. 21 & 22, "THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY." The great oration of Edward 
Everett, delivered at the Academy of Music, July 4, 1861. 

Hack or current uumbiMS are promptly mailed from the ofHce, on receipt of the price. 



15 & 16 —(Two in one, 20 cents.j WEBSTER'S SPEECH, in the ITuite,! 
Senate, bn the FORCE BILL, and JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION to South 



:S 



I'ROVIDENCE IN THE WAR 



A Thanksgiving Sermon hj the Rev. S. D. Burchard, D.D., delivered in Ihc 
Thirteenth Street rreshyterian Church, New York, Nov. 28, 1861. 

" Then .1 lord on whose hand the king- leaned answered 
the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord wonld make 
Avindows in heaven, might this thing Le ? And he said. 
Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes." 2 Kings vii. 2, 

AVi: have met to-day, in accordance with a time-honored 
and excellent custom of our fathers, who, in the simjilicity 
and fervor of their piety, wero wont to acknowledge the 
hand of God in all their worldly affairs. In adversity and 
trial, they hmnbled themselves under the almighty hand 
of God ; but in prosperity, they restrahied not praise, hut 
poured forth their hearts in sublime and devout thanks- 
giving. 

We have met to-day imder circumstances of the most 
extraordinary character — circumstances so mixed and pecu- 
liar, and so intimately connected with ourselves as to strike 
home to the bosoms of us all Avith great and unerring force. 
If our circumstances are mixed, so are the emotions which 
they naturally engender. And in the sight of God, to 
wdiose penetrating gaze every thought and intention are 
laid bare, we present at this moment, in this His house, the 



292 



PROVIDENCE IN THE AVAR. 



strango spectacle of a people filled witli gi'atitiide and 
tliaukfulness for manifold and seasonable blessings ; yet, in 
tlie same instant, bowed down by the weight of a huge 
calaniity, and with a painful sense of our need for His sus- 
taining grace and i>rotecting mercy. Such, indeed, is our 
situation, that while we praise the Lord that He hath given 
to us the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and 
plenty of corn and wine, with the same bi-eath we are 
compelled to exclaim : " Let God arise, let His enemies bo 
scattered; let them also that hate Him flee before Him. 
As smoke is driven away, so dri\'e them away ; as Avax 
melteth before the fire, so let tlie wicked perish at the 
presence of God." 

We live in times at once the most api)alliiig and the most 
sublime — times in which a country, springing from a people 
whose fathers have enriched the scroll of fame by names 
that shall never perish, written there with pencils dipped 
in the blood of patriotic martyrdom, once an experiment, 
but long since an acknowledged foct — times in which the 
degeneracy of a portion of the nation, recreant to honor 
and of suicidal intent, must be met by the stern determi- 
nation of men who dare to do and who dare to die for the 
land that gave them birth. A patriot, all the world over, 
lives everywhere and forever in the minds of the good and 
the true. Amid other sources of knowledge, the history 
of the past is wliat a wise and a prudent j^eo^jle can never 
l)ass over in safety. A people neglectful of historic teach- 
ing is a people without a literature and Avithout civiliza- 
tion ; for history is the double finger-post in the world, 
■whence we gain intelligence to improve the jjassing day. 
Of history there are two kinds — profime and sacred. Pro- 
fane history is the record of men and events, either in their 



PUOVIDENCE IN THE WAR. 293 

progress or de];)ression, without ostensibly regarding a 
Divine interposition. If spreads before us the past and 
acquaints us witli the present. National observation cen- 
tered here induces a firni and wise precaution ; it marks 
crimes, for their extirpation ; faihires, to avoid their repe- 
tition ; and takes hold of the last and highest point of ad- 
vancement to link it to pursuits in which we are engaged. 
Sacred history is the history of God's dealings with man, 
and their effect ; and of man himself as the instrument of 
executing' the decrees of Heaven. To overrate the im- 
portance of sacred history is beyond our power. From 
the relief of individual want and danger, the inspired rec- 
ord advances to the protection of armies and the safety of 
peoples. A knowledge of tl>e history of the world, and 
of God's own history in the world, in reality, enables a 
man to live twice, for he joins yesterday with to-day. The 
l^ast is but a series of yesterdays, running back to the birth 
of time; and by their junction to the now of busy activity 
and turmoil, we behold again the mighty deeds that have 
been; and if of the household of faith, our confidence iu 
Infinite wisdom is supported by the i^rofound conviction 
that wrong^ however plausible, overbearing, and extended, 
can never prosper ; but that rigJit, with the might of God 
behind it, and its sincere and earnest prosecution, shall in 
the end most gloriously triumph. Thus has it ever been, 
and thus will it ever be. 

I shall now endeavor to prove, from the circmnstances 
of the text, that all events wliich occur in this world are 
under the Divine control ; that there is an overruling 
Providence ceaselessly watchful, bountiful, and working, 
from whom we derive abundance for the sower and the 
eater, the fruitfuhiess of hibor, and the products for com- 



294 PROVIDENCE IN THE WAR. 

merce ; that that same Providence can alone give jjeace to 
a people, or regulate the surging billows of ruthless Avar ; 
that He beholds the oppressed batthng for self-preserva- 
tion, and controls the contests and convulsions of mighty 
nations ; and that if a national sin has been the cause of 
national convulsion, His operations will be aimed at its de- 
struction. But if the j)reservation of the sin be the sole 
object of the strife, He may permit the integrity of the ruin 
to be just as complete, though the ruin be delayed, 

" Jehoram, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel 
in Samaria. And he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord; 
but not Uke his father and mother ; nevertheless he cleaved 
unto the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin." 
Here we have the unimpeachable history of a people pro- 
fessing to be separate from the errors of others — to be the 
people of God, and receiving of His mercy great and sig- 
nal blessings — led by their rulers into adulterating the true 
religion, the doctrme of God, so pure, so holy, so unselfish. 
Calves of gold had been introduced as objects of divine 
worship. Yet these were better than their predecessors ; 
for tliey had forsaken the grosser adoration of Baal and its 
attendant inicpiities ; but forasmucli as they had withdrawn 
their worship, though only in part, from tlie true God, to 
that extent unquestionably had they forsaken Him, and for- 
saken Him, their help in time of need, to devote regard to 
a golden image. 

Elisha, the prophet, dwelt in Israel, upon which kingdom 
Ben-hadad, king of Syria, was disposed to make Avar. The 
preparations for Avar, then as ?^o?/', were sought to be en- 
shrouded in mystery ; but Elisha AA'as cognizant of every 
counsel the king of Syria took ; and so completely aAvare 
Avas he of all his proceedings, that it Avas said to the king: 



rr.oviDKXcE in tiik "w^ra. 



295 



" Elisha, the propliet tliat is in Israel, telletli llic king of 
Israel the Avords that thou speakest in the hedchanil)er." 
This information was obtained through Divine revelation. 
The Syrian king desired the person of the prophet, and 
having ascertained where he was, sent, vinder cover of the 
night, horses and chariots, and a great host, and compassed 
the city about. The servant of the man of God rose early 
in the morning, and made this portentous, this alarming 
discovery, and in a state of trepidation said to Elisha: 
" Alas ! my master, what shall we do ?" Elisha, unmoved 
by alarm and unawed by danger, instantly replied, with he- 
roic firmness : " Fear not ; for they that be with us are 
greater than tliey that be with them.'''' Such a reply, in 
their then condition, seemed to have no foundation in fact, 
and moreover bore tlie appearance of beuig contrary to the 
truth. Two men were unarmed and helpless, and sur- 
rounded by enemies who sought their destruction. And 
yet one of them could say, and say with consistency, that 
he had friends for his protection, immediately available, 
who were stronger than this army, tei-rible with banners, 
when not a single being was visible to render them aid and 
comfort. Elisha was right. Oh ! the sublimity of flxith, 
and its mighty power! Oh! the grasp it takes of the 
strength of God, to transform weakness into certain and 
irrefragable sccui'ity ! lie saw more than sufficient to jus- 
tify the assertion he had made. Elisha then prayed that 
the Lord would open the eyes of his minister; and he, too, 
saw, his gaze resting on a spectacle which, for bewildering 
grandeur and for rapturous beauty, can only be reahzed 
when God is pleased to unvail His majesty and to display 
His glory — a vision which can never more be repeated till 
the blood-washed soul, borne on the wings of angels, shall 



200 PKOVIDENCE IN THE WAE. 

pass the bright gate of Paradise, to sit with Jesus upon the 
eternal throne. "The mountain was full of horses, and 
chariots of fire round about Elisha." This was God's pro- 
tection — grand, eiFective, unsurpassed, impassable ! " The 
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear 
Ilim, and delivereth them." Thus, we repeat, is it ever in 
the world, and ever will be. His shield is spread, though 
it be unseen by imbelief, and becomes a bulwark that can 
not be sundered. The Syrian soldiery, smitten with blind- 
ness, were taken captive, and could have been destroyed. 
But God was merciful, and, with restored sight, Ihey were 
permitted to return home. 

Still the king of Syria was dissatisfied. He thirsted for 
the conquest of the king of Israel, and commenced the at- 
tack by besieging Samaria. Prior to this, and even simul- 
taneously, the horn of plenty had been emptied into the 
lap of the Israehtes. The treasure of the people was great. 
The arts of peace were cultivated, and commerce supplied 
abundantly the nation's wants. But war disturl^ed their 
quiet pursuits, and let loose gaunt want to ravage and de- 
stroy. The famuie was so sore, that an ass's head sold for 
four-score pieces of silver. As the king of Israel passed by 
on the wall, a woman cried, " Help, my lord, O king!" to 
which he rephed: "If the Lord do not help thee, whence 
shall I?" Prevailing misery led him outwardly to humble 
himself m the sight of God ; but the sackcloth on his flesh 
was no index of the heart — he yet rendered divided hom- 
age to Jehovah. The errors of ages and of men long pass- 
ed into eternity have not in all instances passed with them. 
Men of unstable faith, for their own interest, purposely 
pervert their judgment in tracing effects to causes. And, 
like the king who threw the blame of the disorders in his 



V^ 



I'ROVIDEN'CE IN THE WAK. 297 

kingdom on Elislm, they are willing to attribute disasfev to 
any source but the right one. Ii5rael Avas in the presence 
of an enemy remorselessly clamoring for empire. Com- 
merce Iiad ceased, the people suffered, and a surreiidei^ 
would involve destruction. His army, coope<l ii]> within 
the city, were held at bay by an imjjlacable foe actively 
Avatching a favorable oppoutunify to strike a decisive blow. 
His position would soon be mitenablc ; and humanly speak- 
ing, both himself and his kingdom must perish. With this 
crushing weight upon him, Ave are not surprised that he 
said, " If the Lord do not help, Avhence shall I ?" But we 
are surprised he uttered these Avords without feeling their 
import. They inA'ohed the real issue. For unless Divine 
assistance came, the Avhole country Avould be overrun, 
and ruthless ruin Avould follow the footsteps of the mad- 
dened despot as he stamped his blood-red heel u]»on the 
liberties of a stricken and a prostrate nation. Faithless 
stood the ruler, Avith the AVords of eternal truth in his 
mouth, feebly hoping in Jehovah, but clinging strongly to 
liis golden idols, tohich sin had given rise to the Syrian in- 
vasion. In his excess of Avickedness, his blame of Elisha 
was in etfect laying his sin to the charge of God ; and the 
man of God Avho stood betAveen him and death Avas im- 
piously doomed as a sacrifice. "But Elisha sat in his 
house," calmly reading events as they progressed, and sol- 
emnly beholding the hand of the Ahnighty. With the 
arrival of the messenger of murder and of the king, the 
liour arrived for the prophet to make the happy but unex- 
pected announcement — " Hear ye the Avord of the Lord. 
Thus saith the Loid, To-morrow about this time shall a 
measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two meas- 
ures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." For 



298 rEOYIDENCE IN THE WAE. 

this to take place, the contest must be at an end. It im- 
plied that there should no longer be an enemy in front of 
the city; that peace once more sliould dwell within their 
boi'ders ; in fine, it implied an entire reversal of things 
now in active and relentless conflict. Where raging war 
had devastated and was still devastating ; where all Avas 
gloom, and sorrow, and darkness ; where a stricken people 
writhed within the meshes of an iron despair, there should 
succeed a restoration to former prosperity, and a re-visita- 
tion of quietude to a distracted land. And all this within 
the passage of less than four-and-twenty hours. Xever was 
a nation so close upon defeat. Never had humanity drifted 
nearer to its uttermost extremity. But that moment so 
nearly an overthrow — yet not an overthrow — proved the 
Almighty's season of deliverance. The morrow came, and 
with it war gave way to peace, sorrow to joy, and danger to 
security. Such an illustrious act of Divine interposition, so 
speedy, so well timed, so thoroughly efficient, may well stag- 
ger the mind of the unbeliever in the goodness and provi- 
dence of God. It did the lord on whose hand the king leaned ; 
who, having heard the words of the man of God, said, " Be- 
hold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might 
this thing be ?"' To which Elisha replied, " Thou shalt see it 
with thine eyes." He did see it with his eyes, and he saw 
that what was im2)ossible with man is eminently possible 
with God. God wrought out this great work after his own 
fashion. The Syrians, alarmed at the noise of what ap- 
peared the approach of a great host, and imagining rein- 
forcements were coming down upon them, fled in the 
twilight in confusion and dismay, leaving their tents and 
their horses, and strewing the road to the river Jordan 
with garments and vessels thrown away in their haste. 



rr.OVIDENCE IN THE WAR. 299 

All the food in the camp became the property of tlie Is- 
raelite?. And. so a measure of fine flour was sold for a 
shekel, and the same price was paid for two measures of 
barley. The man of God and the nation were saved, as the 
Lord had promised. 

AYith such a history as this, who can be unthankful for 
mercies promised and for mercies granted ? Who can be 
an unbeliever in the j^rovidence of God — a j^rovidence so 
minute, numbering the hairs of the head — a providence so 
extensive as to embrace the government of every nation 
of the earth ? The record of what God has done once is 
given to intimate He is able to do again. And if it be 
true that history, in the course of years, repeats itself, and 
if it be true that God hath treasured up mercy for all 
generations. He, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever, when He sees a nation convulsed by intestine 
strife, and shaken to its center by the evil passions of 
men, and striving to maintain its existence in undiminished 
independence, in advancing freedom, and in unru2:)tured 
unity — if the heart of that nation repose its confidence in 
Ilim, lie Avill not be an idle spectator. But when His 
help is needed — without which it is impossible to cohere — 
and when His help is asked by the mingled voice of men — 
many myriads, who feel deeply and who love fervently, 
His help will be manifest. His justice will search out and 
probe the cause of conflict, His mercy will tone down the 
bitterness and acerbity of faction, and His wisdom will 
devise and develop the means to be adopted to establish a 
genuine reconciliation — a reconciliation which shall bo 
honest, because it is just; which shall be binding, be- 
cause it is sincere; which shall be lasting, because it is 
brotherly. 



300 PROVIDENCE IN THE WAH. 

" If the Lord would make windows in heaven." Hear 
the word of tlie Lord ; His eye seeth every j^recious thing ; 
for He looketh to tlie ends of the earth, and seeth inider 
the whole heaven. 

Of our country it may he said, even now, though in 
such perplexity : " God turneth the wildei-ncss into a 
standing water, and diy ground into water-springs." Our 
fields have Avhitened unto harvest ; full sheaves of golden 
corn have gladdened the sower ; our vineyards have been 
prosperous ; our cattle have suffered no decrease. And 
for His profound mercies in causing the earth to bring 
forth its fruits and to yield abundance, we call upon all 
that is within us to praise and magnify His name. 

We praise Him for the inestimable advantages we enjoy 
for the education of the people — advantages to be found 
in no other country on the face of the globe. We have 
faith iu the rising generation — that when called to take 
their place and to succeed us in the various dejiartinents 
of life, they will be found indoctrinated in those principles 
which dignify a people — principles of virtue and honor 
and truth — principles capable of frowning dowji the igno- 
ble and unworthy, and of sufficient strength to maintain 
themselves unshackled and free. 

We praise Him for the providential freedom of our 
institutions, built up by the infusion of His wisdom into 
the minds of our fathers. Subserving the interests of 
public morals, while they conduce to liberty, they are not 
Avithout the imposition of restraints. A wise and equitable 
admixture of both, tending to the elevation of the masses, 
is a proof of their adaptation to our common nature, and 
of their beneficial influence on p, great and growing popu- 
lation. 



I'KOVIDENCK IN TIIK WAU. 301 

We praise Iliin for an upright judiciary — the glory of 
the land of the free. When judges decree judgment 
Avithout fear and favor, upon llie intrinsic merits of the 
case; when they scorn the bribe of the corrujtt, and inter- 
pose the shield of their integrity to protect the weak 
against the strong; when they administer justice as in the 
sight of God, and with a view of standing before the 
Judge of all the earth to be judged themselves — a country 
self-gOA'erned as our own has reason to feel secure. 

We praise Ilini for the ability we have to supply, 
through the medium of commerce, the Avants of other 
nations. We believe God has intended this great country 
to be the granary of the world. Kivers and railroads are 
the internal highways for carrying our cereal products. 
Every harbor is a resting-place for trade ; every delta an 
em])orium ; every station of importance a depot for accu- 
mulation. Throw down the map of the two hemisi)heres, 
cast your eye i;pon the intricate winding of the lakes — the 
keels of the slii})s of America are familiar there. Trace 
the tracks of a vessel engaged in circumnavigation — they 
are the recorded pathway on the charts for the guidance 
of future mariners of an adventurous fellow-countryman, 
now rendered more fimous for his capture of the rebel 
ambassadors. And wheresoever language is the exponent 
of thought and desire, our sails will be found to whiten 
the seas, and the Flag of our Union to float on the 
winds. 

We praise Ilini for the advancement of science, which 
has lent its aid to overcome geographic cliflftculties our 
fuhers may have sighed over, but never dreamed of 
accomplishing. This vast continent is spanned to its 
utmost extremity by wires running through forests, over 



302 PKOVIDESC'E IN TIIK WAK. 

mouiitaiiis, and across the broad and rolling prairies, along 
■vvhicli tlie subtile fluid courses with a swiftness defying 
time. 

The agile Indian may well Avonder that that iron thread, 
piercing the atmosphere and buoyed on poles not five 
times higher than himself, can hold conununication Avith a 
people separated by thousands of miles. Words can 
travel to the golden regions of California, and to that 
anomalous community of Utah, while we are traveling the 
length of our own Broadway. The means of our personal 
locomotion have improved in the same ratio. From the 
day that Fulton asked his scoffing passengers to suspend 
their condemnation for twenty minutes, while he examined 
his stopped engine, contending Avith the stream of our 
noble Hudson, to the present, steam navigation has im- 
mensely advanced. The hand of genius has built a shorter 
bi'idge across the boisterous Atlantic, on arches no mathe- 
matic eye can scan, and Avith buttresses no time can wear 
aAvay, by the construction of larger and SAvifter vessels ; 
and ere long I predict the voyage tp the mother country 
will not exceed a Aveek. It is instructive to Avatch the 
course of this mighty leveler, steam, and the influence it is 
silently but securely exerting over all the old habits of life 
here and everywhere. 

" 'i'ramp, tramp, across the land — 
Tramp, tramp, across the sea — " 

goes the iron horse. In high })laces, in Ioav places, its 
power is equally felt — felt by the prince and the peasant — 
by the farmer and the citizen. The solid gain the Avorld 
derives from its introduction is the increased value ])ut 
ii2:)0n the flying hour, and its aggressive invasion of the 



PROVIDENCE IN THE WAK. 3()3 

region of first ideas — rousing, quickening, and exciting 
those sluggish minds whicli else might liave shimLered for 
the ages future, as they had slumbered in the ages past. 
The engine never tires, but speeds its way through densely 
populated districts, or along a road ^Ahere the foot of 
civilization had never trodden — where wild herds of cattle 
roamed imchecked, or where unsocial and ferocious beasts 
of prey found shelter or made lairs in caverns of the rocks 
or ground. In another form, but on the same principle, 
iron and steam have entered the domain of human labor, 
and abridged its toil. The application of steam to print- 
ing has aided more to preserve the first law of Heaven 
among men, and true progression, than all the standing 
armies, and all the navies, and all the monarchies that have 
existed, or ever will exist, however huge their numbers or 
formidable their armaments, or aspiring their intention, or 
benevolent their design. "What interpretation could Mil- 
ton, with all his learning — or Locke, with all his under- 
standing — or Samuel Jolnison, with all his lexicograj^hic 
acumen — or Benjamin Franklin, with his scientific attain- 
ments — or Priestley, or Jonathan Edwards, or George 
Whitefield, with all their riches of eloquence and scholar- 
ship ; what interpretation could they give to the Avords, 
" STEAMrPowKU FOR IIiKE," adapted as a motor ibr the 
pohiting of a needle ; for the construction of the delicate 
machinery of a Avatch ; or to the rapid raising of a 
hanuner of ten tons weight, and easily manageable in the 
hands of a child ? What the future will develo}:) we know 
not. It is more than probable steam may be superseded. 
But this we know — there is a growing tendency to spare 
the hands and eyes of artisans, both male and female, and 
throw the unfelt drudgery of heavy work upon some un- 



^04: niOVIUENCE IN THE WAE. 

complaining machine, whicli asks only cave in return for 
what it may produce. 

Our literature has kejit pace with our science. The 
j)ress is the handmaid to a purer morality — a higher 
ci\ilization — a more exalted piety. Popular attention, 
directed to proper subjects, and popular sentiment based 
upon instinctive right, are both led onward by those noble 
minds A\ho are the chief adornment of our era. Nay, 
they are bej'ond the era. In addition to wliat is, they see 
what should be, and are making preparation for its attain- 
ment. In all such eiForts they scatter blessings, and dig- 
nify their callhig. True authorship is the lever of Archi- 
medes, and universal mind the fulcrum whereon it must 
rest to uplift the world. Other minds there are— sharp, 
keen, gloAving as Damascus steel — minds that seize upon 
the passing thought, strike it, and malleate it into form 
and substance — minds who, though not cleric, esteem the 
world their parish ; and in their daily addresses, silent, 
invaluable, Avell-studied sermons on the topics touched, 
they teach the people the value of an honorable self- 
reliance, the importance of independent thinking, and the 
manliness of manly action. 

No noisome jiestilence, begotten in darkness, amid the 
abodes of want and wretchedness and crime, hath stalked 
among us, like a foul specter, to smite with death. No 
epidemic engendered on foreign shores, and brought 
hither in the holds of ships, or borne on the wings of the 
wind, hath decimated our villages, cities, or towns. Othjer 
nations have been visited with these calamities, mowing 
down sentinels at their posts, and depoiDulating vast tracts 
of territory. For this escape, and the mercy through 
which it comes, we can not refrain from oflering to our 



PUOVIDENCE IN THE WxVR. 3Q5 

heavenly Father the sacrifice of our devout and grateful 
tliauksgiving. 

But, above all, we praise Ilim for the freedom with 
which we may worship. No legal restraints, save those 
of decency, are intei'posed. We assemble beneath our 
own vine and fig-tree, none daring to make us afraid. A 
free people, at liberty to worship according to our con- 
science — the complete severance of the Church from the 
State, so powerful an engine in other countries to sus- 
tain a sect, but not to advance the kingdom of the Re- 
deemer — has presented so attractive an aspect, through 
grace, that the absence of religious jirofession would 
seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Men 
are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ — the highest 
dignitaries in the land setting the example. Nor do 
men forget or forsake the assemblies of the saints. 
When the sanctity of the Sabbath has passed, and we 
enter upon the turmoil of the world, we are invited to 
sing anthems of joy as we journey to business in the 
morning; or to seek, by prayer, the presence of the Ee- 
deemcr and His blessings upon our undertakings, when 
the rays of the noonday sun are shining in the windows 
of our homes. The state of our churches, generally, 
though not all that the warm and ardent heart of the 
Christian and the Christian pastor could desire, is such 
that we have ground for jjraise. Some have been fa- 
vored with revivals, Avhich show the arm of the Lord 
made bare ; and angels have rejoiced over many who 
have been made wise unto salvation, and who now bear 
the cross to wear the crown. 

And yet this great, this hitherto prosperous, this highly 
f ivored country — ranking inferior to none in the fimily of 



30G rKOVIDENCE IN THE WAR. 

nations, and at peace with all tlie nations of earth, is plun- 
ged into reLellion — the most wanton, the most wicked, the 
most causeless rebellion. Never in the history of the 
world's great crimes, and none greater will be found on 
record, was rebellion so merciless, so ferocious, so ensan- 
guined. Taking advantage of their position, and the weak 
and feeble, if not most criminal, hands that held the reins 
of government, designing men, men who had nothing to 
lose but everything to gain by success, stirred up revolt 
first in a single State, with the avowed purpose of disrn])t- 
ing the Union, bled for and established by our fathers. 
Was the then Executive ignorant of the facts ? He knew 
all, and more than all, for he knew what was going to be 
done. In the message sent to the State Legislature of South 
Carolina by Governor Pickens, in the early part of this pres- 
ent month, November, he says: "On the l7th of De- 
cember, the day after I was inaugurated, I sent a confede- 
rate agent to the President of the United States, demanding 
Fort Sumter. On the 20th December the President sent 
General Gushing, a distinguished citizen of Massachusetts, 
to me with a letter. I had but a short interview wath him, 
and told him I would return no reply to the President's 
letter, except to say, very candidly, that there was no hope 
for the Union, and that, as fxr as I was concerned, I intend- 
ed to maintain the separate independence of South Carolina, 
and from this purpose neither temptation nor danger should 
for a moment deter me." Of course this treasonable reso- 
lution was detailed to the President, who did nothing, ab- 
solutely nothing, though possessed of all jiower. Governor 
Pickens had previously informed mankind that he Avas 
"born insensible to fear" — truly a most glorious heritage. 
But brave men rarely boast their courage ; they are mod- 



PROVIDENCE IN THE WAK. 3O7 

est ; they do not seek to attract puWic regard by bombas- 
tic and baseless self-gratulation ; and he had forgotten, if 
he ever kncAV, that the bravest are those "who turn. pale 
with fear at the commission of wrong^ but are bold as jien, 
and lion-hearted in the performance of right. (Governor 
Pickens is a living testimony of the frightful perversion, 
tlie wretched delusion to vi^hich a deliberate course of 
wrong-doing subjects the Avrong-doer. What I am about 
to tell you is history, from the very purest of sources, 
though derived from its originator, who is fearless only in 
regard to shame. In the same official message he says : 
" The cadets of the Citadel Academy at Charleston, under 
the immediate command of the scientific officer then at the 
head of that institution, were the first corps I directed to 
occupy a new battery on the channel, loith positive orders 
to open the fire. * * * On the 9th of January last they 
drew the lanyard of the very first cannon that was ever 
fired into a vessel bearing the flag of the old Union, and 
triumphantly drove her back, filled as she Avas with armed 
men to invade our soil, and sailing under special orders. It 
was this cannon which opened fire upon the Star of the 
West." The haiid that penned this record never trembled ; 
the cheek of the writer never blanched ; the heart that 
gave vitality to the hand never smote him for this stupen- 
dous infamy. To turn the cannon of his country against a 
ship of his country ; to command the y®ung and inexpe- 
rienced to apply the fuse which sent a death-intended mis- 
sile, which might have sent hundreds to a watery grave ; 
to trail the flag under which his own father fought and 
perished in the dust is the perfection of iniquity, requiring 
something more than human, and not angelic, to equal or 
surpass. In keeping with these monstrous proceedings is 



30S PROVIDENCE IN THE "WAR. 

Ins audacious appeal to posterity : " Circumstances placed 
us ill the van in this march to independence. We claim 
no exclusive merit, but, under severe censure and the most 
trying circumstances, A\e only endeavored to do our duty, 
faillifally and hravely. Events have since vindicated the 
wisdom and })atriotism of our course ; and I conlidently 
appeal to the future with the proud consciousness that pos- 
terity will exulting-ly point to every page of history as tab- 
lets on whose marble surface shall be engraved the record 
of our honor unstained, and of our integrity without a 
blemish." The i^emesis of history never sleeps. Governor 
Pickens, and the State of which he is the head, wiU liave 
their due reward. And if the wide-spread sentiments of 
the jieople can infljience now, and influence a generation who 
must derive their knowledge from ourselves, the crimes 
of the present population of South Carolina, with their 
penalty, will be read in a page like this : " Charleston, once 
the chief city of South Carolina, by reason of its atrocious 
treason, in endeavoring to compass the disruption of the 
United States, now lies in a mass of ruins. It never did 
advance as other cities, and hastened more speedily to de- 
cay. The providence of the Almighty has been peculiarly 
severe — as severe as ^^■ith Sod(5m and Gomorrah — and a 
keen remembrance of its iniquity still prevails, so much so 
that its examjile is held up to the minds of our children to 
execrate and avoid. Its commerce is diverted and given 
to another. For years no shi^is have visited its port. The 
few inhabitants that remain realize the abomination of des- 
olation. A curse rests upon it, and even the names of its 
])rominent men are distasteful and despised. The busy 
hum of congregated merchants has long being sUent. The 
business of her streets has gone, and the grass grows in the 



rrwOVIDENCE IN TUE WAR. oqq 

roads. Houses, once the residences of families, Avbose ar- 
rangements would denote both wealtli and comfort — the 
roo-ms of which, if walls could speak, would tell of converse 
gay and blasted hopes; houses now roofless, falling, the 
abodes of unclean birds. The State-house and the legisla- 
tive hall still remahi, but the only sound that sti-ikos the 
car is the flapping of the wings of bats. Of tiie gardens, 
once radiant with flowers, not a vestige remains. A sliape- 
less mass of tangled Aveeds — with ivy rimning ujj the 
truidcs of trees with destructive luxuriance and tenacity — 
suckhig their life-sap — of which the sere and yellow leaf is 
too. sad an indication, meets the gaze in every direction. 
The winds sigh through the branches, and the screech owl 
sends forth her sharp and bitter sorrow." Does such a rec- 
ord appall ? Yet who would regret it ? The first insti- 
gators of treason should feel individually the accumulated 
woes of those who have felt the loss of property, the loss 
of fathers, the loss of husbands, the loss of sons ; and, more, 
they should be made to feel — who draw the sword — a blood- 
red hand yet wields a sword, to thrust it to tlie hilt in the 
(piick. 

War is at all times to be deprecated ; but civil war, 
internecine strife, is the most relentless when the cause is 
least. History has revealed to us that an entire genera- 
tion has passed away since the inception of the idea of 
secession. Southern men, who despise the appellation of 
American, by their violent and unchecked language have 
sown discord among the masses ; and appealing to the 
very worst judges — their passions and their interests — 
they have declared their property in human flesh and 
blood, and bone and muscle, was not only in jeopardy, but 
could never be extended. Southern literature has been 



310 PROVIDENCE IN THE WAE. 

either bold for separation, or tinctured deeply with allu- 
sions to secession, and the blessings consequent to the in- 
dependence of the Confederate States. To this end reck- 
less ambition and disnpjiointed hope have been at work 
with an ardor worth a better cause. Our mints, our 
arsenals, our arms, our navy-yards, our ships, our officers 
— trained to the art of war at the public expense — were 
stolen and taken from iis. And the North and the South 
are arrayed against each other with an army of hundreds 
of thousands on either side. The South threw down the 
gauntlet wath a sneer, thinking the North too timid to 
take it up. Do you ask the cause ? Do not be misled by 
believing it a question of free trade or protection. The 
truth is this, and it can not be concealed : An empire is 
sought to be established, whose foundations shall be 
slavery — hourly, daily, yearly, eternal bondage. The 
Northern mind — the mind imbued with the religion of 
Jesus — at once the praise, the honor, the savior of the 
land, abhors the perpetration of involuntary servitude, be- 
cause it trembles at what God abhors. " He that stealeth 
a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, ho 
sliall surely be put to death" — is the expression of God's 
abhorrence of slavery ; and the severity of the penalty is a 
proof of the greatness of the crime. When the present 
Executive was elected to office he swore to uphold the laws 
and maintain the Constitution. In the face of Heaven 
that was his oath ; and the Northern army gathered 
around him on the banks of the Potomac, in Western 
Virginia, in Missouri, and other places ; and the vast navy, 
afloat and operating, part of which has struck a vital blow 
at rebellion on the very soil of those who brought about 
our troubles, and hope to escape their righteous retribu- 



PKOVIDENCE IN THE WAR. 



311 



tion — are intended to demonstrate his sincerity and liis 
determination, at all hazards, to restore the integrity of 
the Union. But what is the integrity of the Union? 
Why are Ave at war ? Surely not for an idea, but for a 
stern fact. In the hands of God, do we not esteem war as 
a punishment ? And if there be punishment, something 
must exist for which we are punished. National sins pro- 
voke God to anger, and when His fury is kindled He per- 
mits war and desolation to come upon a people. This is 
our punishment — but that is not all. The object of punish- 
ment is reformation. We punish crime that we may 
repress it or prevent it. If, then, slavery be a sin, con- 
taining in itself the absolute total of every abomination 
known upon the earth, from murder downward — and that 
it is a sin, millions hold here in common Avith all Christen- 
dom — the restoration of the integrity of the Union must 
mean the restoration of the rebellious States Avith that erad- 
icated which caused the rupture. Upon this hypothesis, 
and this alone, can we secure the smile of God. Then 
this war Avill purify, and Avith its incAdtable but tremen- 
dous evils it Avill produce incalculable good. Already 
arguments are canvassed as to the disposition of slaves at 
the termination of the Avar. The huge confiscations by 
the South of Xorthern property aauU demand consideration 
in the settlement. But Avill the handing over of the 
human property of traitors, fighting against their country, 
to loyal Southerners, Avho have sacrificed all for their 
loyalty, meet the case ? No — a thousand times, no ! It 
Avould be but a distinction Avithout a difierence, and leave 
the matter more complicated than it now stands 

We OAve a d^bt of gratitude to our brave and noble 
army — both officers and men — Avho have gone forth to do 



312 rPvOVIDENCE IN THE WAG. 

battle for the Union, to preserve our liberties intact and 
our country from division. Let us bear tbem in our 
prayers at the throne of grace, that the God of battles — ■ 
the sword's great Arbiter — woiild support them in this 
righteous conflict, and protect them amid the dull cannon's 
roar, the murderous burst of shell, the hail of bullets, and 
the clash of steel. 

The hosts who have rushed to the rescue at the call of 
danger, and who have measui'cd weapons Avith the enemy, 
are fired with the ancient patriotism which changed those 
colonies into this republic. Those who wait to join the 
fray are 2)atriots too, whose martial lionor is as bright as 
ever glowed within human bosoms. From the North, and 
the East, and the West have they come, in all the vigor, 
and strength, and steadfastness of lusty manhood. The 
flower of the people are the nation's defenders. Perilous 
days, undoubtedly, are those that are passing now. They 
are trying men's souls. But piety is enduring, and is cer- 
tain to conquer. Faith lifts the vail that hides the seen 
fr(;m tlie unseen, and beholds, with Elisha, the horses and 
the cliariots of fire. Engagements have been fought, and 
still will be. In the moment of the deadliest struggle, 
when the serried ranks of our troops shall press hard upon 
a desperate enemy — though portions of that foe shall lurk 
in ambusli, in hope of dealing death to others, without ex- 
posure to themselves — God is present on the battle-field. 
And who tliat put their trust in Ilini did ever so in vain? 

God is in the midst of the sea — in the calm, and the 
storm, aii<l the tempest. God is with those who go down 
to the sea in yliijis for commerce or defenisive war. Are 
there no horses or chariots of fire to surround the bows 
and sterns of the fleet ? They were about Elisha on the 



PEOYIDENCE IX THE WAK. gi3 

mountain — tliey are in the air, for they carried Elijali to 
glory ; and, verily, they were in front of onr armada on 
that historic day, and were to our veterans a wall of brass 
when tliey captured the forts at Port Royal. An eye-wit- 
ness says : " On no occasion have I had greater reason to 
thank the Almighty for bringing me through so many 
hair-breadth escapes as I this day experienced during tlie 
four hours we remained under the fire of the enemy's guns, 
which could only be likened to a shower of hail. The 
death- dealing missiles came so fast and thick, that to the 
sacrcdncss of our cause can we alone attribute the miracu- 
lousness of our not having to report a too dearly-bought 
Aictory." Not twenty deaths resulted in the squadron 
from this terrific conflict, and this is but the commence- 
ment of the end. Have faith in God; cultivate a spirit of 
trust and gratitude. Tliere are windows in heaven through 
Avhich the Lord is Avalcliing the progress of this mighty 
struggle. We may expect emergencies— great emergen- 
cies — but, under God, they will be the means of developing 
great men — men of enlarged comprehension — patriots of 
singular wisdom — men of unity of feeling and of pur2:)ose 
— men attached rather to principles than solicitous of re- 
sults — Heaven-sent men — the right men in the right place 
at the right time — men who will scorn a compromise, but 
Avho will heal a breach. 

Let us then prayerfully look forward to the time of con- 
scientious a'.id fraternal reconciliation; when the crim-cs 
of the present shall pass into history ; Avhen Reason shall 
again assinne her sway ; when the fiat shall be shouted — 

" Plant that flag 
On fort and crag, 
With the people's voice of thunder !" 



\ 



314 PKOVIDENCE IN THE WAK. 

and the flag of our Union shall float once more on the 
breeze from every arsenal and public building in every 
State, and be loved and reverenced as heretofore, without 
the subtraction of one solitary star, without the erasure of 
a single stripe, and with all its original luster undimmed, 
un tarnished, un obscured. 

May God i^rcserve the Union! May it be disrupted 
never — never ! 



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THE MOVEMENT-CURE 

A BCMMARY OP ITS PSfNOIPLBB, PftOOESSBS AMD RESULTS, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 

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The ftandamental idea upon which the medical practice of this Institute is foundad. 
1b the superiority of a thorough and systematic application of Hygiene, to the prev- 
alent methods of treating the sick. It is well understood that this sentiment is shared 
by very many of the most respectable, influential and educated members of the commu- 
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the basis of all human powers, the root of all human capability, and when this falters, 
we must apply the natural remedies. 

This plan of roHiedial treatment therefore, involves the lollowing particulars : 1. A 
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olX^en, through bathing, and other habits ; 3, and more speciflcally, the strengtlieniiig 
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confused and scattered elements of medical Hygiene. The influence of sucli a system 
is aireftUy much extended, and will necessarily continue to extend, till chronic invalids 
will be able to avail themselves, generally, of the remedial plan here set forth. 

Besides ordinary foi-ms of chronic disease, those requiring SURGICAL OPERA- 
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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 67 West TMrty-eigrhth Street, 

"* NEW YORK CITY. 




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